Amazon Is leading In Tablet Sales But losing share To Best Buy, Apple, and Microsoft

Amazon Is leading In Tablet Sales But losing share To Best Buy, Apple, and Microsoft according to a new survey

Microsoft is working to beat Apple in online tablet sales in 2016.

But in Q1, Apple was still the #1 brand sold online.

Microsoft was the biggest gainer, with an incremental +9% in Q1 share year-over-year. Amazon lost -4% in Q1 share year-over-year.

Amazon was the top-selling retailer for tablets in Q1, with 37% share across their Direct and Marketplace channels. Despite maintaining the largest share in Q1 2016, Amazon lost -14% of share in tablets year-over-year to Best Buy, Apple, and Microsoft Store.

The top-converting tablet brand online in Q1 2016 is Amazon with a 4.5% conversion rate. Apple came in 2nd with a 2.4% conversion rate, followed by ASUS, Samsung, and Dell. Conversion rate is a measure of units sold divided by number of online product views.

Online Tablet Category Report
Q1 2016

By Andrew Won

Apple still #1 in tablets; Microsoft sees strong share growth in 2016

Top Brands by Sales $ – Q1 2016

Apple – 32.5%

Microsoft – 25.0%

Lenovo – 10.9%

Dell – 9.1%

Hewlett Packard – 6.5%

Amazon = 5.5%

ASUS – 4.6%

Samsung – 4.4%

Toshiba – 1.5%

In Q1 2016, Apple was the #1 tablet brand sold online, holding onto the #1 spot from Q1 2015. The biggest gainer was Microsoft who captured an incremental +9% in Q1 share year-over-year. In contrast, Amazon lost -4% in Q1 share year-over-year.

The tablet category is extremely competitive and constantly evolving to meet the needs of consumer demands. As we saw last year, the high level of category innovation has led to products such as the “phablet” – a crossover between a smartphone and a tablet and the “laplet” – a crossover between a laptop and a tablet. Within the tablet and laplet category, Microsoft released both the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4 in October 2015, while Apple released the iPad Pro in November 2015.

To account for the evolving nature of the category, our analysis included laplets, such as the Microsoft Surface Book. In the last quarter, laplets accounted for a whopping 33% of sales for the tablet category.

Amazon is leading e-commerce retailer for tablets but losing share to Best Buy, Apple, and Microsoft Store

In Q1 2016, Amazon was the top-selling online retailer for tablets with 37% share across their Direct and Marketplace channels. Despite maintaining the largest share in Q1 2016, Amazon lost -14% of share in tablets year-over-year, which has been captured by Best Buy, Apple, and Microsoft Store. Of the top 10 sites, the 5 retailer sites accounted for 62% of total category sales, while the 5 manufacturer sites accounted for 34% of category sales.

Amazon and Apple see strongest conversion

Top Converting Brands – Q1 2016

Amazon – 4.5%

Apple – 2.4%

ASUS – 1.7%

Samsung – 1.6%

Dell – 1.2%

Lenovo – 1.1%

Microsoft – 1.1%

Toshiba – 1.0%

Hewlett Packard – .8%

The top-converting tablet brand online in Q1 2016 is Amazon with a 4.5% conversion rate. Apple came in 2nd with a 2.4% conversion rate, followed by ASUS, Samsung, and Dell. Conversion rate is a measure of units sold divided by number of online product views. Amazon’s high conversion rate suggests that people who view their tablets have a high likelihood of purchasing the product. With this intelligence, Amazon can invest resources in generating more product views to achieve incremental sales. HP’s low conversion rate suggests that shoppers are viewing their tablets but do not feel compelled to purchase. With this knowledge, HP can invest resources in promotional and pricing strategies to encourage higher conversion and generate incremental sales.

Methodology

1010data utilizes a number of sources of consumer spending data representing millions of consumers to provide an accurate assessment of online and offline retail sales and market share. Our data enables clients to track consumer behavior using high-quality, granular datasets that are often difficult to source, cleanse, and consolidate.